New Testament · Apocalyptic · book 66 of 66 · 2 min read
The book of Revelation
A letter to seven real churches, written in a genre with its own conventions, which is almost always read as though it were a coded newspaper about the future.
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.”
At a glance
- Chapters
- 22
- Author
- John, on Patmos; his identity is disputed
- Written
- Probably 90s AD
- Written for
- Seven named churches in Asia Minor
- Themes
- worship, empire, witness, new creation
What it is about
Revelation is apocalyptic literature, a genre with established conventions that its first readers knew and modern readers usually do not. It uses vision, symbolic numbers and beasts standing for empires, and it is addressed in its opening chapters to seven specific congregations with specific problems.
Interpretations divide broadly into those reading it as about the first century, about all of history, about the end, or about none of these in a literal sense. Sincere Christians hold all four, and any summary claiming the question is settled is overstating.
What is not in dispute is where it ends: not with destruction but with a city, a river, a tree whose leaves are for healing, and God wiping tears off faces.
Where to start
Chapters 2 and 3, the letters to the seven churches, which anchor everything that follows in real places. Then chapter 21.
The chapters worth knowing
- Revelation 2 — The letters to four of the seven churches, each addressing a specific real situation.
- Revelation 5 — The scroll nobody can open, and the lion who turns out to be a slaughtered lamb.
- Revelation 21 — The city coming down, and God wiping tears off faces — where the book actually ends up.
What people get wrong about it
That it is a timetable. It belongs to a genre that uses symbol and number the way a political cartoon uses caricature, and reading it as a coded schedule has produced a long history of confident predictions that did not happen.
From this book
Questions
What is the book of Revelation about?
A vision addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor, using apocalyptic imagery to argue that the empire persecuting them is not the final power. It ends with a renewed creation rather than with destruction.
How should Revelation be interpreted?
Four broad approaches exist — first-century, historical, futurist and symbolic — and serious Christians hold each. Knowing that the book belongs to a genre with conventions matters more than choosing between them quickly.